


Late Night

by leejenowo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Late Night Work, M/M, im tagging shit again, renjun likes to analyze the people who come to the store, strangers meeting for the first time and falling in love, whats new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 20:14:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16226525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leejenowo/pseuds/leejenowo
Summary: Renjun is working a late night shift and he hates it until the tall stranger with no filter comes in.





	Late Night

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this because someone on twitter talked about the possibility of Renjun waking up as tall as Yukhei and I was like nah

Renjun was tired and bored, but mostly the latter. It was around 2:30 in the morning and the feeling of regret was starting to settle in deeply. He had blindly accepted to cover for Mark’s shift at the convenience store because his coworker had a  _ date _ . Renjun absolutely hates night shifts and it didn’t help that he was working a double shift on that day. This was definitely messing up his usual friday night plans: pizza and buzzfeed unsolved (it was his guilty pleasure). He could be at home watching conspiracy theories on aliens and discussing them with his friend Jisung, but no! He was stuck on his uncomfortable stool behind the counter, watching the minutes pass by on the small clock above one of the refrigerators. 

 

Fridays were always the same. He would see the usual businessmen, in their perfectly ironed suits, come in to buy beer and sometimes a snack before leaving hastily. Those people weren’t very talkative, mostly coming and going as quickly as they could so they would have time to drink a bit before having to go back to their family. Then after dinner Renjun would sometimes see a couple of kids enter the store. They would buy candies with their allowance money and he would smile at them from behind the counter. Don’t get him wrong; he absolutely hates kids. But seeing them act so mindlessly reminds him of when he also didn’t have a lot of responsibilities. He wonders how these kids will turn out in the future, when they have bills to pay and an education to get.

 

That’s the time Renjun would usually leave as his regular shift ends at 9PM. But today, he had to endure the cacophony of noises coming from the various clientele that was brought by the late hour.

 

First, there was the karaoke madmen. They would usually come in after the sun had set to buy alcohol before heading to the karaoke right across the streets. When their time in the room was over (Renjun could tell they usually booked them for 30 minutes), they would come back in to get even more alcohol and snacks. But this time, they would sing whatever lyrics they could remember, like a reminder of the good time they just had. By now, Renjun could tell which songs were on their rather limited repertoire (mostly IU, sometimes Davichi and once they had tried to rap to Outsider, but that was a complete disaster). They were regular clients, so Renjun always tried his best to not groan and hide his ears whenever they came in.

 

Second, there was the broken hearts. Now, they were probably the most annoying in Renjun’s opinion, and one of the reasons why he avoided working night shifts the most. Who would want to deal with crying people at passed midnight? Well, Renjun was a compassionate being so he put up with every heartbroken person that came through the doors. He was pretty sure he had once watched a new love story unfold right in front of him, like a movie. It was a while ago, but there was this one time two people came in. Both headed straight to the aisle with the all the chocolate bars. They then reached out at the same exact time, resulting in their hands touching. In a movie, that part would have been in slow motion, but in real life, there was none of this. They actually fought over who would get to buy it despite there being more than one bar left. It took everything in him to not grimace at them when they came up to the counter to pay for one chocolate, saying that they could just share it. Renjun rolled his eyes after they were gone, but he kind of wished something like that would happen to him one day.

Third, the teenagers. Oh, Renjun absolutely despised the teenagers. They were loud, obnoxious and often up to no good. Nothing like how Renjun was when he was just a couple of years younger. He had to constantly check on them from where he was seated and sometimes look at the big mirror attached to the ceiling just in case they were trying to steal. It had happened before, thankfully it wasn’t when he was working, but he still kind of felt bad that Mark had to pay for whatever was stolen. Maybe Renjun was scary because they had never tried anything suspicious when he was the one working, they would just walk from one aisle to another without really paying attention to what was on display.

 

He was somewhat used to the variety of clients that would come and go through the night when he occasionally worked, but nothing prepared him for what happened that night when a perfectly normal looking customer came in. Well, almost perfectly normal if you considered the fact that Renjun had never seen a guy so good looking before. He was tall, really tall, and Renjun felt intimidated the second he came in despite sitting on his high stool. He was not  _ insecure _ about his height because he was kind of average in his opinion, but this guy was  _ tall _ . The way his brown hair was cut short made him look young, probably younger than he was in reality, but it gave him a really boyish feel that Renjun thought was rather attractive (although he didn’t want to admit it to himself). Big brown eyes and a floppy earring were enough to make his whole face shine whenever his head moved. And he had a long neck, clearly proportional to the rest of his body, but  _ long _ . 

 

But of course, he couldn’t be perfect. In fact, he was so clumsy Renjun cringed as he watched him try to pick up more articles than his arms were able to carry, most of them spilling over on the floor. Renjun sighed loudly from his spot, which caught the attention of the other boy. Instead of being embarrassed about it, the guy just looked at him and gave him a sheepish smile and in return, Renjun gave him a tight-lipped smile. It was 2 AM, he was not supposed to look like he was nice at that time because what if people asked him for discounts? Hell no! 

 

When the guy was about done with everything he had to buy, he came to the register and let go of everything he was holding at once. Renjun then thought that he must be pretty dumb for thinking that using this technique would end well for him. And, of course, most of the things ended up rolling on the floor.

 

The other guy looked at him, “Oops? I didn’t think I had so much stuff… You see, my roommate asked me to come here to buy more food for our movie marathon ― we’re watching Scream 3 now ― and we argued because neither of us wanted to come so we played rock, paper, scissors and I lost so here I am.”

 

Renjun just looked back wondering why this boy thought he cared about what had brought him in. He was cute but too bad he was loud as hell and clearly had no filter at all. 

 

“Um, can you pick up the chips that fell please?” The guy shifted on his feet under the weight of Renjun’s glare until the cashier looked away from him to notice a can of pringles had rolled on the floor beside his stool.

 

“Well, I hope you don’t mind eating them in dust because I doubt they survived this fall.”

 

It wasn’t intentional, but Renjun managed to make the other laugh and he felt like he just realized something impossible. He usually didn’t make people laugh so this was kind of a little victory for him. So without thinking too much about it, he got down from his stool to pick up the can laying around before putting it back on the counter and scanning it. That’s when he realized that he now had to crane his neck to meet the other guy’s eyes. Renjun wasn’t so sure if he was average anymore.

 

But the boy in front of him looked at him with his mouth slightly open and Renjun noticed how his lips looked so red and ― “You’re so small…”

 

Renjun wanted to scowl at his comment, truly no filter. “That would be 34 dollars 57 cents, please.”

 

The cashier hoped he was not going to pay him with coins when he heard the sound of metal after the boy had reached for his pocket. Fortunately, he brought out his credit card and Renjun gave him the receipt after the transaction was completed.

 

“Have a nice,” Renjun never really knew what to wish at this hour of the day, “rest of night?”

 

The tall boy smiled at him, “You too!”

 

Renjun couldn’t find it in himself to say there was no way the rest of his night would go well considering the fact he was stuck behind this counter, but it was a nice thought nonetheless.

 

The guy was just about to pass the door and exit the store before he turned back to Renjun, “Say, would you like to go on a date one of these days?”

 

Renjun smiled, “I like horror movies too.”

 

“Good,” was the last thing he said before leaving, the sound of the bell resonating behind him.

  
That one clumsy customer was enough for Renjun to change his mind on Friday nights and Mark didn’t actually complain when his coworker asked him to take over his shift the next Friday afternoon because he had a  _ date _ .


End file.
